We left off in Taupo and the beginning of my geothermal experience in New Zealand. As I'm sure we all know, New Zealand sits on the Ring of Fire. The Southern Alps were created by the Australian plate and Pacific plates running into each other. The fault line runs right through New Zealand. Because of this the country experiences a bunch of earthquakes each year, has numerous volcanoes, and geothermal hot spots. The area around Taupo and Rotorua is the site of numerous geothermal parks and experiences. You see a lot of boiling mudpots, hot pools, and geysers.
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| Champaign Pool at Waiotapu |
While I stayed in Taupo for two nights, on my first day "in" Taupo, I actually headed north to Waiotapu, a geothermal park located between Taupo and Rotorua. Because my stay in Rotorua coincides with Christmas, I had decided it was important to hit the things that definitely weren't open on Christmas.
I got to Waiotapu in time to make a quick run-through of the shortest route through the park, and then I got in my car to drive down the road to the Lady Knox Geyser. This geyser is somewhat interesting. Typically when you think of geysers, you think of a spring shooting water into the air on a fairly regular schedule. While this one does do that, they actually induce this geyser to erupt, which is how it was discovered. A little over a hundred years ago, a chain gang was working in the area and used the hot water spring to clean their clothes. When one of them dropped their soap in the wrong spot, the geyser erupted. It shocked them all. After that, when they came down to wash their clothes, they dropped their bar of soap again to figure out exactly where the geyser was, to avoid it. So that is what they still do at the park. At 10:15am someone from the park drops "soap" (I think there is still some soap to it, but I'm not sure exatly what it was) into the geyser, which then breaks the water tension, causing the different water temperatures to mix, leading to an eruption. An eruption with bubbles!
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| Lady Knox Geyser |
After this, I made my way back to the park where I wandered all three loops of the geothermal park. It was crowded and chaotic. It was the first time I've run into that many people in one place since arriving. I found it almost claustrophobic. Locals are definitely on summer break now, so you have them on top of the tourists, in an area with lots of things to see and do that will entertain kids (at least somewhat).
The park had craters where the hot gases underground had eventually caused the surface to collapse in. Inside these craters you could see yellows, greens, oranges, and purples caused by different chemicals. The walls had some cavities where birds will make their nests because it keeps them warm and makes egg incubation easier. Apparently the gases coming off of them don't bother the birds. Some of the craters have bubbling water or mud down at the bottom of them. I had truly believed that I was done visiting Lord of the Rings sites, but it turns out that one of the craters there at Waiotapu was used for Foley work for LOTR Mordor scenes.
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| This pool matched the lighter green of my backpack! |
There is a big rainbow hot pool that they call Champagne Pool because of the carbon dioxide bubbles that come to the surface. There as another pool that was lime green. Like fluorescent. I didn't really believe that color existed in nature!
When I finished at the park my body was shot. I've done so much and it has been so long since I took a break that I just went back to the hostel and read and watched YouTube videos and stuff for a while, before heading out to find ice cream.
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| Huka Falls |
In the morning I packed up for my move to Rotorua. Just outside of Taupo I stopped at Huka Falls. The Huka River runs through a small canyon that speeds that river right up until it falls out the other end at a blistering pace of 200,000L/s (that is liters per second), which it turns out, is enough to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool in 12 seconds (and they claim that Americans will use any form of measurement other than metric as units! Kiwis are guilty of it too!)
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| Huka Falls |
I sort of passed through the edge of town on the way to a hiking trail around a small lake. When I finished that, my feet said "NO MORE!!!" so I headed into town and checked into my hotel. I booked a nice place for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It had a pool and even two mineral hot pools. Seeing as my feet and body were exhausted, I threw on my swimsuit and went to the mineral pools.
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| Geyser + Lights = Cool Light Show! |
Then before heading to bed I went to Te Puia Geothermal Valley for Marama, a nighttime lights and geysers spectacle. Using lights and lasers and the steam drifting off the geothermal spots, they lit up the park. My parents had suggested doing it and it was really neat to see!
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| Walking through a lit up forest at Te Puia. |
On Christmas morning, I videochatted with my parents who are currently in Madeira. There it was still Christmas Eve. After our Christmas chat, I headed to Te Puia for my daytime tour. Te Puia is not just geysers and such, but also a Maori cultural center. They have an area that is a school for Maori trades such as carving and weaving. The guides are all of Maori descent and not only talk about the geothermal stuff, but also about Maori culture. It was neat to see the geothermal stuff I saw in the dark, during daylight. They had some mudpots that reminded me of the jumping water fountains at Disney World that I enjoyed when I was little.
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| Geyser erupting! |
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| Craftsmen working on Maori carvings. |
After our tour I attended a display of Maori music, culture, and the Haka. Sitting there listening to it all reminded me so much of Whale Rider (one of my favorite movies! which is set in a Maori village).
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| Maori Culture Presentation doing a Haka. |
With my visit to Te Puia over, I headed back to the hotel for some food and relaxing (more pool time!). After a bit, I wandered over to Kuirau Park. This is literally just a city park with geothermal sites running through it. Like there's the basketball courts, but don't overshoot the basket too far or your ball will end up in a 100C pond! There was one place in the park where there were footbaths you could rest your feet in. They were hot! I'm going to say probably somewhere in the 110-120F range. Like, I had to ease my feet in there and only stuck around for about 5-10 minutes before I started sweating, and felt a bit like a roasting pig.
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| Footbaths in Kuirau Park. |
Tomorrow I leave Rotorua for the Coromandel Peninsula. I'm on the road for just 6 more days before I turn in my car and spend the last few in Auckland.
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